538 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
destroyed dozens of the nests of game birds and song- 
birds, which are the farmer’s best friends, since they 
are ever-working unpaid police officers, destroying all 
through the summer days the insect enemies which 
prey upon his crops. If the work of these insect-eating 
birds were to be stopped for a week, or for a month, 
the damage done to the crops of the United States 
would be incalculably great. 
In certain sections of the South an extremely de- 
structive enemy of ground-nesting birds of all sorts is 
the wild hog, which roams the forest, literally seeking 
what he may devour. The number of nests and eggs 
of turkeys, ruffled grouse and quail that these animals 
search out and destroy is very great. Some States have 
laws providing that hogs shall not be allowed to run 
at large, but such States are exceptions. On the other 
hand, it must be said that in States so thinly settled 
that hogs and cattle are permitted to run wild, there 
are comparatively few dogs and cats that roam the 
fields and woods. 
Mr. Herbert Brown reported a few years ago that 
previous to the introduction of ranch cattle the masked 
quail was quite common in southern Arizona, but that 
the cattle eating off and trampling down the tall grass 
had so destroyed the breeding and hiding places of this 
bird that it had practically disappeared from the United 
States side of the line, and at latest reports this was 
still the condition, as is seen by what he says on page 
64. Under such adverse conditions, it is not strange 
that our stock of splendid game birds grows smaller 
